Suomalainen sänky (The Finnish Bed), by ethnologist Leena Sammallahti and researcher Marja-Liisa Lehto (SKS 2006), is an illustrated history of Finnish sleeping arrangements, from simple benches along the wall, that were once common on many farms, even elaborately carved and quilted. luxury span of upper class homes. Sammallahti wanted to give the Finnish bed the spotlight it deserves, and as a result we now have an illustrated history of the Finnish bed. “Since I was a child I haven’t slept very well, so the bed occupies my mind in this sense,” says Sammallahti.

His recently published book, Suomalainen sänky (“The Finnish Bed”) presents the evolution of Finnish beds from solid sleeping platforms to ornate four-poster beds and models that can also serve as sofas and bunk beds. The valley beds of the Tornio river stand out for their magnificence, says Sammallahti. “They have elegance and richness, which I have always loved.”

The seeds of the book were sown in the late 1960s when Professor Niilo Valonen, a legend of Finnish ethnology, used students to photograph the interiors of country houses, creating an illustrated record. Sammallahti was one such young student assistant at that time. “Once, when I was taking pictures of furniture, a vendor appeared selling new furniture. He thought I was a competitor. I could hardly believe that someone was interested in old furniture. At that time it was used as firewood,” Sammallahti recalled. With his book on Finnish beds, Sammallahti feels that he has completed one aspect of a great project that his mentor failed to finish in her lifetime. Valonen’s intention had been to study the villages, yards, buildings, and interiors of farms in Finland.

Sammallahti lives in Pori in an old terraced house originally built for factory workers. In Helsinki he has his “travel suite”, created from the old sauna building at the back of a traditional 1950s house in Herttoniemi. The furniture in both houses gives an idea of ​​the profession of the person who lives there. “Actually, only the computer is new,” she laughs. “Already as a schoolgirl, I went to auctions, looking for old objects.” The author’s favorite bed was inherited from her grandmother. She is a model that opens on one side. The wood is carved, showing images of donuts and cookies. However, she usually sleeps in a 1920s pine bed, as it is pleasantly wide.

A bed is where people are born, die and make love. In medieval times, taking the bride to bed was written into the law: a marriage was considered valid only after it could be proven that a couple had spent a night under the same sheets. Memories of Sammallahti’s bed also arise with intimacy. “I remember how my grandmother’s sister, a midwife, took me, a child crying from lack of sleep, next to her under sheepskin blankets. And how my fiancé and I shared a Heteka metal frame bed in the attic warm from a summer house.”

Sammallahti retired a few years ago, but continues to do research. “After being relieved of my job duties, I have plunged into the sublime deep waters of a researcher.” The aquatic metaphor is no coincidence. The author is a descendant of a maritime family with origins in the outer islands of the Gulf of Finland, which Finland lost in the war against the Soviet Union. “When I was a boy, I was allowed to sail on a ship with incredible freedom. During the holidays, I was allowed to go with my father on a steamer to the ports of Europe.”

Sammallahti received her PhD from the University of Helsinki in the early 1980s. After that, she worked in various jobs, including director of the Finnish Maritime Museum and the museum of the Satakunta region. “I have seen how the museum industry grew along with Finnish prosperity. Now it is sad that it is necessary to reduce funding, ”she notes. “Museums are the only organizations that store ancient objects. And with them, we talk about values ​​and meanings: spiritual matters.”

One of the Finnish museums where you can see these same beds for yourself is the Lyytikkälä Farm Museum in South Karelia. The history of Lyytikkälä Farm began in 1722 and it was opened as a museum in 1989. The old farmhouse has fixed benches built along the walls of the main room (the tupa) while along the back wall are similar beds. to some of the ones shown above. . In years past, the owner’s children, farm workers and visiting guests slept here (in summer they slept in the farm’s sheds).